Spec [04/04/06] |
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Exterior
Interior
Chassis
Engine
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Project Build Diary 4th April '06 Acquired an '89 Diamond Schwartz e30 325i Touring.  The interior was horrible cloth with the usual 'mauled by a dog' driver's bolster. It had no rear seats. The exhaust had been tied on with electrical cable. An induction kit had also been 'fitted' and this and the airflow meter had been tied to the inner wing, again with electrical cable. The rear brake pad sensors were tied up with string, it had a bent wheel, a damaged tyre with a bulge in the sidewall, 2 cracked headlights, a cracked dash, a cracked wooden gearnob... Mechanically it had a bad leak from the rear crank seal, it wouldn't idle due to a badly fitted big-bore throttle body and used more water than oil due to a suspected cracked block. Good points were that it's been polybushed including M3 eccentric control arm bushes, there's a Z3 2.8 short shift fitted, and a fairly new H&R Cup Kit is in place. A Scorpion stainless exhaust also resides underneath, which while not to my taste is worth a few quid. The car also came with a spare 3.91 LSD, a non-cracked dash, and an OBC with loom. Most importantly the bodywork was in good shape. E30 tourers seem to escape the majority of tin-worm problems that plague the saloons. Even the front jacking points on this one seemed very sound. So, a good basis for the project. Most of the problem areas will be removed or replaced in the course of the conversion. 8th April '06 Bought another e30 325i Touring. This one's a '91 in Sterling Silver. The bodywork is tired but it's a very high spec car. The original invoice is for over £30k. I mainly bought it for its black sport leather interior which is quite a rarity in folding-rear-seat touring spec. I'll also have a few of the other options off it like the electric rear windows to put in the black car before breaking the rest to make a few quid. I drove it back from the Lake District to the South Coast and it didn't miss a beat. With 6 months Tax and 6 months MOT it almost seemed a shame to pull it apart...   10th April '06 Hartge 17" 3 piece split rims, 7.5j front and 8.5j rear purchased. As far as I can tell (and Birds, the UK Hartge dealer seem to think) these are a one-off set of wheels (in 4x100 PCD) made for the 1990 Hartge Motorshow car and the wheels that appeared on the e30 in the Hartge literature. They've recently been refurbed with black powdercoated centres.  I also bought a ZF 5 speed e36 328/3.0 M3 Gearbox from eBay. 17th April '06 Swapped the interior from the silver tourer into the black one. Parts swapped include all the boot panels, interior boot trim, rear speaker pods, door cards, rear electric windows, centre console for rear electric windows and front and rear seats.  I gave a friend the Alpina gearnob so have temporarily replaced it with a nasty Sparco one I had left from my racing car. The interior is now a much more pleasant place to be. 19th April '06 Smoked Hella headlights fitted. Headlight wash/wipe and levelling system removed. Tatty kidney grill re-painted in satin black.  25th April '06 Trial fitted the Hartge wheels.   27th April '06 Fitted the Hartge wheels. I bought the tyres from blackcircles (Toyo T1-S 205/40/17 fr 215/40/17 rr) and had a local tyre fitters fit them to the wheels using stainless 10mm motorbike valves. The tyres have a slight stretch which is just the look that I was after. Once I got them home I fitted them to the car. Initial findings are good. The fronts seem to clear perfectly but the rear arches will need pulling about 10mm as they catch at the current ride height. I want the car to eventually be lower at the rear so I'll need proper clearance first. As well as fitting the wheels I also swapped the clear indicators and side repeaters for smoked ones and fitted Silvatech bulbs at the same time. To replace the tatty old number plates I've also fitted pressed aluminium German style plates.    11th May '06 Collected M52 Engine!  Sourced from an accident damaged '98 e36 328i Sport. Pre accident the e36 was in very good condition and had a full BMW service history. The car had 108k on the clock but the date stamp on the engine points to a replacement block so it's likely to be fresher than that. I took S50 swap legend Ian Haynes with me to ensure we took all the EWS gubbins as there are various parts I was bound to miss some. I also have the cars VIN etc so will check the history of the engine with BMW. It looks like a bit of a squeeze in the tourer's boot but it actually went in without too much bother. The trip up to Sutton Coldfield and back to the South Coast needed 11 lites of water putting in the M20. It really is on its last legs! 19th May '06 M20 RIP. Finally today on the M6 toll road heading South the engine breathed its last. She went out in style though. A machine gun knocking noise and the throttle pinned into the carpet until a large oil cloud engulfed her and she seized solid. Thet'll be the 4th M20 I've turned into scrap metal. |